Inside the World Health Organization’s (WHO) New Global Initiative on Digital Health

The World Health Organization (WHO) is launching a global initiative on digital health – a network of networks, so to speak – and we get the inside scoop from its Director of Digital Health & Innovation, Alain Labrique.

The WHO’s primary role is as a convener – as “collectors and communicators” of best practices – and Alain lets us in on how this position is becoming increasingly vital to the WHO’s 194 member countries as they work on the digital transformation of their individual health systems, and come together to further advance common rules and frameworks for successful digital health partnerships world-wide. “There's a willingness to collaborate,” says Alain. “There's an understanding of the urgency of NOW…”

“I think the pandemic has woken people up,” he explains. “We have politicians and governments talking about enterprise architecture. About standards and interoperability. I mean, this would've been something we would've dreamed about five years ago!”

Alain’s role is focused on “channeling energy” and that starts with helping the WHO’s member countries develop the ‘big picture’ stuff needed for systemic digital health integration: strategic plans, costed road maps, common frameworks, and also ecosystems that bring together governments, public sector partners, private sector players, academic, NGOs, innovators, and other key stakeholders. Now, thanks to the WHO’s new global initiative on digital health, that ecosystem is set to get larger, and will seek broader alignment on plans, policies, frameworks, rules, and roles.

We chat about the details behind the WHO’s approach and get Alain’s take on the hot button issues dominating the conversation – common frameworks and standards for health data sharing; competency-building and workforce development; and patient-centricity and the concept of “digital public health,” or, as Alain describes it, what the pubic needs to know about health data privacy, security, and their rights as patients to own their data and be able to decide who gets to see it. From the digital divide to empowering local ecosystems to solve problems, we explore all aspects of healthcare’s global digital transformation and find out what, of all of this, keeps Alain up at night.

Filmed at MedInfo 2023 in Sydney, Australia, July 2023, with special thanks to the Australasian Institute of Digital Health.

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Jess DaMassa chats it up with the ‘who’s who’ of the health tech and healthcare innovation set on 'WTF Health - What's the Future, Health?' Catch 100's of interviews with leading healthcare technology startups and the VC investors, health insurance companies, big pharma co's, and hospital systems helping bring their new ideas into the healthcare establishment. From AI and Big Data to digital health, virtual care, telehealth, digital therapeutics, payment model innovation, and investing, Jessica helps you spot the trends and figure out what’s next.

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